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The Kingdom of Ashes (Isis General Fiction)
 
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The Kingdom of Ashes (Isis General Fiction) [Large Print] (Paperback)

by Robert Edric (Author)
2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 4278 pages
  • Publisher: ISIS Large Print Books; Large type edition edition (1 Sep 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0753179393
  • ISBN-13: 978-0753179390
  • Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.5 x 2.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

Germany, spring 1946: The Nuremberg Trials are underway. Three hundred miles north, in the Rehstadt Institute, a British "Assessment and Evaluation" centre, Alex Foster interrogates a succession of lesser war criminals, exploring their pasts and their crimes, and deciding their futures in the soon-to-be-reborn Germany. But Rehstadt, a town largely untouched by the war, is a place of old hostilities and burnished hatreds; a place still not entirely at peace; a place where the certainties of the past are still weighed favourably against the deprivations of the present and the vague, uncertain promises of the future.As spring progresses, and as events in the wider world quicken to their own closely observed conclusion, Alex Foster finds himself at the centre of a conflict involving British, American and German interests; and for the first time in his career he also finds himself compromised - forced into subterfuge and deceit as he struggles to weigh personal convictions and loyalties against the greater political and military good... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Germany, spring 1946. The Nuremberg Trials are underway. Three hundred miles north, in the Rehstadt Institute, a British 'Assessment and Evaluation' centre, Alex Foster interrogates a succession of lesser war criminals, exploring their pasts and their crimes, and deciding their futures in the soon-to-be-reborn Germany.

But Rehstadt, a town largely untouched by the war, is a place of old hostilities and burnished hatreds; a place still not entirely at peace; a place where the certainties of the past are still weighed favourably against the deprivations of the present and the vague, uncertain promises of the future.

And in the confusing geography and history of this unsettled town, Alex Foster finds love. Through Eva Remer, a German interpreter, he sees the true nature of the world beyond the privileged military enclave which he and his companions inhabit.

As spring progresses, and as events in the wider world quicken to their own closely observed conclusion, Alex Foster finds himself at the centre of a conflict involving British, American and German interests; and for the first time in his career he also finds himself compromised – forced into subterfuge and deceit as he struggles to weigh personal convictions and loyalties against the greater political and military good.

Eventually, the rising conflicts of that incendiary environment pass beyond his control, drawing Alex, Eva and everyone close to them into an ever-quickening tide of unforeseeable events, as inescapable and, ultimately, as destructive as anything Rehstadt has suffered during the war itself. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.7 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, 21 Sep 2008
By I. Newton "A Reader" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Kingdom of Ashes (Paperback)
I had high hopes. The first few pages are filled with celebratory snippets of the author and his previous books. And here he tackles a subject rich with fictional possibilities: Germany in the immediate aftermath of WWII.
The stigma of defeat; shifting allegiances; the struggle for daily survival; the efforts of the allies to sift the guilty from the innocent. The scene is set for a gripping novel.
But where's the narrative thread? There is none. This book is made up of sub-plots. Some peter out, others coalesce in the unsatisfying final chapter.
Without narrative drive, the book is dependent on the characters - and they are the biggest failing. The author has a tin ear for dialogue. Everyone - English, American, German, male or female - speaks with the same voice.
The central character, Alex Foster, is ambivalent. He is antipathetic towards his own army colonel and the American senior officer, but seemingly sympathetic towards the Nazis he is interrogating. And his affair with local girl Eva never rings true.
This really is a fascinating time and place, and is ripe for a truly great novel. For now, the best representation of the era is on film. Forget this book and seek Rainer Werner Fassbinder's remarkable 'The Marriage of Maria Braun'.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Fictional writing at its sloppiest, 15 Mar 2009
By E. Sharman (Warwickshire, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Kingdom of Ashes (Paperback)
Judging by the awesome list of commendations cited inside the front cover you assume you are in for something special. Yes, folks all the top journals are quoted and the highest possible accolades are awarded. So it is with some trepidation that I undertake this review - after all perhaps this IS a work of genius and maybe I am a bit too much of a philistine to 'get' it.

Well this may be true but I nonetheless feel I should protect my fellow readers from this cheap and sloppy piece of fiction.

So, how do I justify these scathing remarks? Here goes!

Firstly, the novel is set in immediate post-war Germany. But the author has not bothered with any historical accuracy as far as I can tell. That's not to say there are historical inaccuracies but it's all 'safe' in that there is no attempt to make the story authentic by the inclusion of period-related facts. For example, the various rooms where the interrogations take place or where the characters live - not one jot of description regarding how it looked or felt or smelled or how they were lit. The GI selling contraband from his jeep - no 'periodicity' there either. I could go on, but the basic fact is that the author jut didn't bother with this stuff. That's sloppy.

This lack of bothering (and again perhaps I just don't get it) is enormously evident in the characters - there is virtually no attempt at character description. Okay - some authors overdo it, but we have little idea what any of these people were supposed to look like. I think it's just lazy. This comment extends to the character backgrounds - their home lives, motivations, personal psychologies etc.

So, perhaps the utter brilliance of this author is that those things just don't matter - surely what matters is the utterly compelling story line? Well, if only that were so. I echo what another reviewer has noted - story lines seem to be being developed and then just peter out, leaving you with the feeling of "what was the point of that?". The interrogations seemed as though there would be some amazing revelation but no, they petered out. The wayward son - it petered out. The dead people in the cellar - what was the point of that? The hospital storyline - where was that going and where did it end?

And then there is the prose. I find it tedious when you feel you understand a character only for the author to use them out of context in an unskilled manner. For example, the GI was not given to other than short phrases containing sarcasm and abuse - but when it suited he was used for giving a stirring and insightful monologue of issues relating to national or post-war psychology. Also, the lead character had a relationship with his boss that seemed improbable and inconsistent.

It seems to me that the author started some things that he found too much effort to string together into a coherent and tight plot. So he left it all dangling. I find this sloppy and frustrating.

Perhaps the overall intent of the book was to challenge the individual to engage and do the work of evoking the sense of the period and to make one's judgements with oneself. Maybe but that's about as useful to me as saying that what's in the Tate Modern is art! And in saying this of course I may have proved I am indeed a philistine!

Perhaps this book is a bad example of an otherwise great author. Well unless anyone tells me otherwise I will stay well away from this type of work. I am happy to use my imagination but surely one of the most important roles of the fiction author is to paint the picture and develop characters and themes?

I am stopping short of saying the book is rubbish, simply because the level of 'tanglement' left me intrigued as to how it would all be synthesised and made relevant. So I kept reading. Is that the cunning plot?

Anyway, one other thing I have definitely learned from this is that if I ever needed evidence that all those cover reviews from the learned journals and individuals were a load of contrived rubbish - here it is!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Trying to rebuild the debris of post-war Germany, 20 Aug 2008
By L. H. Healy "Books are life, beauty and truth." (Hertfordshire, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This review is from: The Kingdom of Ashes (Paperback)
This compelling novel tells of a team of Britains situated in the German town of Rehstadt near Hanover, in early 1946, who are tasked with questioning alleged lesser war criminals, whilst further south in the city of Nuremberg the trials of the international tribunal are taking place against the major perpetrators.

Alex Foster is the main character who we read about and observe questioning these men, as we are party to these interviews, primarily with Johannes Walther and Ochmann-Schur, both accused of direct involvement in horrific incidents during the war. On some cases the interrogators are 'working alongside' the Americans, though it seems that they are actually doing the bidding of the Americans who are controlling matters to their own ends and that the British are helping them out with the prisoners. Foster, despite their alleged crimes, is not without some sympathy that the supposed perpetrators, in particular Walther, are seemingly being toyed with when their deathly end has probably already been decided for them by the Americans, and he becomes increasingly irritated about this, and he voices this with Preston the American, and Dyer the irksome and pompous British superior, to whom he reports on his interviews. Foster is shown to have more peaceful interviewing tactics and non-violent behaviour than that of some of those working alongside him.

The town itself has been affected by the war to a lesser extent than many others, though the opening chapters will reveal that the town is certainly not untouched or untainted by unsettling acts of wartime loss. Key to the development of the story are the local inhabitants working alongside the occupiers, who become involved in the lives of both Captain Alex Foster, and his friend at the institute, Doctor James Whittaker, namely office girls Nina and Eva, the latter of whom Foster becomes romantically involved with. Forster has some companionship with the British doctor Whittaker, who longs to return home to his family, but a decision he makes out of kind-heartedness in the face of the local hospital director's cruelty to Nina's younger sister may come to haunt him. Other key characters who are introduced are Eva's remaining family, her father and brother, and an American soldier named Jesus Hernandez who is close to the end of his time in Germany, and looking to make some extra money selling goods and antagonising Alex along the way.

The lives and fates of the main players are cleverly drawn together into the closing couple of chapters with a thrilling, nail-biting closing scene. The novel left me asking quite a few questions though about what might have happened next, and I would have liked to have known even more about Alex Foster. Edric writes in a very readable, enjoyable style, which may be called clean and crisp, there is no excess of description or dialogue, just what is needed to move the story on and to progress the situations. The tone is rather bleak and sombre, being set in the immediate aftermath of such devastation, but their are moving moments of kindness and hope. The first time I have come across Edric, and a satisfying novel shedding some light on the ashes and remains of war-torn Germany and it's people, showing that there was a lot of work to do to rebuild towns and lives. The novel's interesting title is referred to in the book and explained by one of the prisoners being held at the Institute.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Big disappointment

I found this book very disappointing indeed. It is poorly written, there is no substance in the plot (which never gets going) and the description of post-war Berlin is very... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr Micawber

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good read
Robert Edric is one of those authors whose work is usually appreciated by critics more than readers. Read more
Published 10 months ago by D. P. Mankin

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing
Set in the aftermath of World War II this novel is centred on Alex Foster, a British Army intelligence officer who interrogates small to medium scale Nazi suspects in a small... Read more
Published 13 months ago by D. Saltiel

5.0 out of 5 stars What did you do after the war daddy?
Edric's novel is set in a fictional German town close to hannover a year after the end of the Second World War. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Arkady Hughes

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